Saturday, May 16, 2009

Earth: Final Conflict

Earth: Final Conflict

Earth Final Conflict was a show based of the ideas of Gene Roddenberry. After his death Majel Roddenberry, his wife, discovered notes and ideas for another TV show.

The first season of EFC was simply incredible. The quality of music was mesmerizing, the plots where intriguing, and the aliens where magnificently conceived. Beings made up of pure energy, the Taelons came to Earth with the message of peace. They helped eradicate war, starvation, and any number of social ills facing society. But, all this generous help from the "Companions", came with an unknown price tag. While helping humanity, they where also experimenting on humanity, both to fight their own wars in space, and also to help stop their inevitable extinction.

The show was a refreshing concept, putting Companion Protector Daniel Boone in the middle of this struggle between the Taelons and the Human Resistance. They put a cyber-viral implant into his brain, which expands his mind but also is suppose to make him loyal to the Companions. The resistance recruits Boone, and alters his implant so he can think for himself. Now while working undercover for the Taelons, he also seeks to know their secrets.

The two main alien Taelons where Da'an (played by Leni Parker) and Zo'or (played by Anita La Selva) Both where incredible talents, exuding truly alien movements and expressions.

The show, sadly, went through numerous alterations as the series progressed. After season 1, cast changes where frequent. The actor who played Boone left the show, but was replaced by Liam Kincaid, a half human/taelon/ and Jaridain who sprung to adulthood in a matter of hours. Acting as a bridge between the two races, Liam served as Da'an's protector, and even brought Da'an onto the human's side. Zo'or quickly became a major character, becoming head of the Taelon Synod, and changing the Taelon's course of actions from subversive to outright aggression.

The show could go from an awe inspiring vision of the future, to a cheap action show within seconds. After season one the show simply was never the same, as it bounced back and forth between intrigue and discovery to action and explosions. It still remains a fascinating show, but was quickly degrading with increasingly complex plots and plot threads that went nowhere.

The final nail in the show's coffin was in season 5, when all the Taelons (what actually made the show good) where completely removed in favor of these dumb sudo-vampire Atavus (early Taelon/Jaridians) Liam Kincaid, while not a perfect replacement for Boone, was still good - so his departure from the show after season 4 really hurt.

Regardless of the ups and downs of the series - it still remains one of my favorite Science Fiction shows. I don't know how much of the show was what Gene Roddenberry actually envisioned, but it gave us a glimpse of how wonderfully intriguing and worrying first contact with an alien race could be like.

Here is a clip of the opening sequence for the TV show. As I said before, the music was simply incredible, when first watching the show I repeatedly wanted to hear this very song because of how beautiful it was.